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Super Bowl XLIV - Source: Superbowl.com -
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Critics and academics can complain all they want about low-brow
Super Bowl commercials - but the post-game polls show why
advertisers go for easy laughs when they shell out $100,000 for
every second.
Nearly every post-game survey crowned Snickers, Doritos, and Bud
Light as champions in the annual advertising extravaganza (and
football game) that is the Super Bowl - and all three relied on
slapstick.
The 30-second commercial for Mars Inc's Snickers candy bar casts
beloved and elderly actors Betty White and Abe Vigoda in a
not-so-friendly football game. In a typical Super Bowl gag, both
wind up on their backsides in the mud.
The ad for the chocolate-nougat-peanut-caramel confection took the
top spot in USA Today's Ad Meter, one of the polls that covers the
game. Thanks to the Web, the number of polls that declare the
winners and losers in Super Bowl advertising has swelled.
Executives pay attention. The polls offer the sort of "right in
front of you" feedback that helps a marketer know whether the spot
will ultimately benefit the brand, said Scott Keogh, chief
marketing officer for Audi of America, a unit of Volkswagen, which
ran a 60-second spot this year.
Snickers' win removes some of the less-than-sweet taste left by the
brand's Super Bowl ad three years ago.
Then, critics whacked Mars for a spot that showed two auto
mechanics locked in an accidental kiss while eating a Snickers,
then ripping out chest hair to prove they are "manly."
The polls serve another purpose. They can get consumers to watch
the spots for a second, third or fourth time, or draw in people who
did not see the commercials during the game. That makes it easier
for a company to justify paying $3 million for 30 seconds on TV,
plus the cost of shooting the ad.
Among the spots that polled the best after Monday's Super Bowl on
CBS:
Those who responded to USA Today's Ad Meter liked a spot from
Doritos in which a dog escapes from an electric collar that shocks
him when he barks so he can chow down on the triangular corn chips
(His owner winds up with the collar around his neck). A Bud Light
commercial that features a house made out of beer cans also rated
highly.
In the Wall Street Journal poll, the Audi spot featuring the "green
police" cracking down on anyone using plastic bags, incandescent
lightbulbs, batteries or Styrofoam cuts rated as the game's best
ad. It also rated as its worst.
Google Inc came out on top in the ranking by Kellogg School Super
Bowl Advertising Review, which comprised MBA students. Unlike ads
that typically play well, Google's spot does not rely on kooky
animals or pratfalls. The ad is sparse and subtle - a love story
told through search terms.
E�Trade Financial Corp extended a hot streak built on a series
of talking baby commercials, introducing a new spot that featured a
"jealous girlfriend." It ranked highest in an AOL poll.
TiVo Inc said the ad that generated the most fan "engagement" was a
Doritos spot produced by an amateur. The commercial, "House Rules,"
involves a young boy telling his mother's date to watch himself
when it comes to his mom - and his Doritos.
